Not the End of Us.

Strong Enough

Was He actually strong enough?

Ben had been walking for two days, he did rest between this days, but he didn't rest what he needed. After Charlotte appearing on his dream, Ben told to himself he was stronger now. Ben had been through things he never imagined, his mind was full of ideas and memories, even expectations of what was next, but Ben have been repeating the same question on his mind since he put the house on flames : Was he actually strong enough?

Strong Enough to even defeat the red eye and save his lady?

In a way Ben had been torturing himself thinking on the possibilities of failure, because it didn't matter if he felt stronger, there was always that possibility of failing, and if he did, he believed it was his end as well.

The sun was hitting Ben's face, it was like 4:00 PM, he was thirsty and he felt he was too late, he had been walking through some abandoned cities and he hasn't found the Red Tower yet, What if there was never a Red Tower? and he had been wasting time on this, thanks to the psychos.

But between the old houses and old stores he found a school, a school that could probably be the one he dreamed about, the one with Charlotte on it. Of course Ben took the chance, maybe there was no Red tower and the school appeared on his way for a reason.

Ben entered to the school and noticed the resemblance with the one on his dream, the halls were dirty with paper and dirt and some leaves, some of the lockers were open and there was glass shattered on the flour. He continued his path in silence and with his gun ready, but he did not hear a thing, he was walking toward the Gym following the clues left on his dream.

When he opened the gates he found the gym was still in the same chaos the whole school was, but he also found some skitters waiting for him. It seemed like they've been waiting for a long time now, like somehow they knew he was going to enter to that school, what came to Ben's mind was that this whole situation had been planned by the red eye.

The red eye knew about the dream of course, because they weren't just dreams, maybe Charlie was communicating and the red eye was letting her and took advantage to deliver a message to Ben, to make him go somewhere else where Ben would believe Charlie could be there so he would waste more time.

Of course it all matched, and the minute Ben put a foot on the gym the Skitters were ready to slow him down more.

They started coming for him, with Ben ready with his guns and his small knife, he knew they were more than the number he had face, but Ben Mason was not a coward.

The fight started fine, Ben was using his rage against them, and of course the guns and his ability of being as strong and possibly even more than them. But then it wasn't fair anymore, while Ben was defeating the most of them, some more skitters came from the back door and it was possible that even with all his anger he might not be able to defeat them.

He fire his guns, brand new thanks to Diane, they shot even better and faster, until they were of no more use he started using his knife and started enjoying the moment like old times, he wasn't losing himself, he was definitely not gonna let the red eye win, so he needed to use his anger to get out of there as fast as he could.

He cut legs, he placed the knife on skitters neck or face, He use his fists. Ben was covered in blood and with time he wasn't seeing the end of this, red eye's plan had been perfect; Because he had fallen directly into the trap.

Between his fight and in the middle of not seeing the end of it, when he was getting tired the question came to his mind again "Am I actually Strong enough?" but this time the question was flooding his mind, along with others, "Am I too late?" "Should this end right now?" "Am I willing to survive?" A skitter Threw Ben through the air making him crash with the wall hard, but not hard enough for the questions to go away, he was confused and tired and the questions were actually winning. Skitters started walking toward him, but Ben wasn't moving, he couldn't.

His Breathing was fast, he was looking everywhere on the floor avoiding the truth of the skitters coming for him. He was actually giving up, his body and his mind, Red Eye was actually winning.

Until Ben heard a whisper on his mind, a sweet voice, a familiar female voice.

- : Get up Ben, you are so close now. Get up and fight.

The words reminded him of the confidence he used to have when there was no Alien invasion, reminded him of the good and inspirational talks his mother used to gave him, reminded him of Home and love, Family and the meaning of living. All of that and more, because his mother was always so persuasive and inspirational.

Get up Ben.

And Ben got up, and what happened next was something he couldn't even explain, because it was more than his anger, it was love and courage, it was life itself that reminded him of what he used to love and what and who he wanted to love. The red Eye did not win with that plan, and he wasn't sure how, but he was close and he was ready to finish this without failing, because this was more than just his revenge and anger. This was something willing to fight and live for.